The Death of a Death Eater
by Jadelioness
Summary: Oneshot. What happens when Severus Snape is at the receiving end of Voldemort's wrath?


I do not own any of the characters in this story, only the situation.

"The Death of a Death Eater"

Severus Snape lay cowering on the floor in front of his master. "Please forgive me..." His sentence ended in a cry of pain as deep slashes appeared across his face, blood welling up and running in rivulets down his cheeks like tears. The brilliant red contrasted considerably with his dark appearance and sallow skin.

Severus fell flat on the floor at his master's feet, begging for forgiveness. "I did not mean to disappoint you my Lord. I tried, but they surprised us. We didn't expect ..." he trailed off as he realized his pleading attempts for forgiveness were in vain.

"I am disappointed with you Severus," the Dark Lord said his name with a hissing voice, making the trembling figure on the floor wince. "Not only did you fail me severely, but you now lay before me whimpering like a child." His cold voice slithered in the air like a snake. It seemed to tighten around his throat and keep the oxygen from entering his lungs.

Severus was at a loss. He was a man of honor and pride and even the Dark Lord had never reduced him to cowering like this before. Before now that was. But he was so afraid. He had failed him so definitely that retribution was guaranteed to be great. He managed to bring himself to his knees, hands placed on either side, supporting his suddenly weak body. His dark hair hung in dirty curtains around his face and he kept his eyes transfixed on the stone floor. "Please, my Lord," he whispered, barely able to get the words out of his mouth. "Please, have mercy."

Icy laughter met his plea, chilling the blood in his veins. "Mercy? Mercy? You of all people should know Severus, I am not one to give mercy. Mercy is for the weak. I am not weak." The Dark Lord glared at his most trusted Death Eater. "But you it seems, Severus, are. I trusted you, more than the others, more than anyone, and you have let me down. I allowed you back in our midst to the great protest of your brothers. They whispered that I was wrong to trust you again. Was I wrong, Severus?"

Severus' gazed remained firmly intact with the floor but his body was trembling visibly and real tears were beginning to mix with the drying drops of blood on his face, staining the collar of his robes. With all the strength left in him, Severus raised his head and met the gaze of his Master. "Yes, my lord," he whispered.

Voldemort's snake eyes never left Severus' pain-filled ones as he reached out and caressed the face of his most prized Death Eater. Severus' eyes closed in reverence as he felt his Lord's touch upon him. "I appreciate your honesty, Severus."

He wiped the still freely flowing blood from his servant's face and brought the sullied hand to his lips, slowly cleansing it with slow meticulous flicks of his tongue, like a snake tasting the air. The blood was salty, mixed with tears. His eyes never left the face of his Death Eater. Not even when he thought the silent curse that forced Severus' eyes to fly open in pain and his body to spasm and contort.

Severus had never felt such pain. It was pulsing through him, tearing at all parts of his body, as if greedy hands were ripping him apart. It was unbearable. He couldn't help it. He screamed.

A cruel smile curved upon Voldemort's face as he watched Severus writhe on the ground before him. His screams of terror and pain echoed off the stone walls, bouncing back at them.

Just as Severus was determined he could stand no more, the pain stopped abruptly, leaving him in a numb daze. He lay upon the floor, breathing heavily, trying to pull air into his burning lungs. He could feel his Master's gaze upon him and complacently raised his head to meet it.

Voldemort was smiling. It wasn't a smile of happiness; it was the smile of a reptile just before it broke the neck of an unfortunate mouse. It made Severus shiver.

"It's such a beautiful thing, pain. Watching your enemies writhe in it, dying slowly by your hand, your will. Pain is an extraordinary persuasion. What it will do to a wizard. How it destroys him, makes him do anything you ask just as long as you make it stop. The power to cause such pain is how I have come so far, Severus, how I got to where I am. Pain and fear. The threat of pain causes fear, does it not? Everyone fears me, Severus. My enemies, my servants, even the mighty Albus Dumbledore feared me. Feared the pain and suffering I could conflict upon them." He paused and looked deep into the Death Eater's eyes, as if trying to uncover something hidden in them.

"But the real question is, Severus," he said almost thoughtfully, "do _you_ fear me?"

Very slowly, Severus nodded. "Yes my Lord."

The cold smile again graced his lips. "Why?"

The question made Severus look up startled.

"Why is it you fear me Severus?"

"Because you are the most powerful wizard the Dark Arts has ever seen, and your vengeance is endless. You do not forgive." He answered as thought it was a rehearsed line. His master looked at him expectantly.

"Why do you really fear me, Severus?" He said it with a hiss, accentuating the 's' in his name. It made him quiver visibly, much to the delight of his torturer.

"I fear your promise of unending pain to those who dissatisfy you."

Voldemort's thin lips curled into a sneer. "Very good Severus, very good. Then, why, if you fear me so much, and fear my 'promise of pain,' did you betray me?"

"I tried not to disappoint you master."

"Obviously not hard enough."

"Obviously not."

A cold laugh escaped the Dark Lord. "Do you know what is going to happen to you, Severus?"

Yes, Severus knew. He was going to be tortured to death. He was going to endure pain so great that he would die.

"Yes My Lord, I know what will happen to me."

"And does that cause you fear?" His eyes glinted with a bitter cruelty.

What could he say? His master would easily decipher a lie. And he would not belittle himself further by being caught in one.

"Very much my Lord." He could no longer meet the unforgiving gaze of his soon to be murderer.

"At least you have allowed yourself some dignity, no matter how small, by being truthful."

Severus could only sit in silence while his tears made clean tracks down his face, only numbly noticing that the cuts on his face had healed and he no longer bled freely.

"As you _were_ one of my best Severus, any lasting attempts to renew my faith?" Voldemort asked him in a slightly mocking tone.

As if it would do any good, Severus thought bitterly. Even so, he opened his mouth and whispered, "I am sor—"

_Crucio!_

Severus again fell to the floor, his body twitching as pain, hot fiery pain, sliced though him like daggers tearing him apart from the inside, exploding in blinding blossoms of something so intense he didn't know if pain was even the right word. He could not even hear his own screams, though he knew he was screaming. The world seemed to shake with them, vibrating off the walls. And the horrid smile of a snake displayed on his master's lips made his death seem like a mockery, but all the more worse was something else. Something in his eyes that did not match the merciless expression on his face. Disappointment.

Voldemort watched his favorite Death Eater's body squirm and thrash on the floor in agony until it could no longer take the stress. Then it stopped. It seemed strange, after all the furious movement, for it to be so still now. Of course, it was a common sight beheld by one such as him.

Severus' lifeless body lay eerily still on the floor, and Voldemort rolled it over with his foot, revealing the empty eyes in a mask of darkened blood and quoted his own words back at him.

"I do not forgive."


End file.
